Going for the Gold
by Oomaki-chan
Summary: The Olympics were the end goal for any and all athletes. As the summer Olympics begin in Rio, Brazil, Marinette packs her bags, and Adrien packs his swords. The goal? To win for their country.


The undeniable sense of excitement reached every inch of Marinette's being, and left her body in an audible scream. Her parents, who stood next to her, quickly joined in. In her entire life, Marinette couldn't remember her father squealing before that day. The french teen looked down at the paper in her hands as though she couldn't believe what she was seeing. She reread the letter over and over again. Her mother hugged her, looking over her shoulder to read the letter as well.

Marinette was seven years old when she fell in love with the gymnastics class she did after school. She kept training, at first on sticking with her school's club, then eventually transitioning to working with a personal trainer. Now, after eight years of waking up at four in the morning, training for two hours before school, and again after school, and long train rides for competitions all over France, she was invited to the Olympic trials.

The trials themselves were amazing. There were maybe twenty or thirty different girls all trying out for the same five positions on France's Olympic team. Marinette, at a bright and shiney sixteen years old, was definitely one of the youngest. Her coach had taken her, both her parents having been busy working at their family bakery. That day she did everything she could, pouring every ounce of her skill into her routine.

She had been working with Tiki for years. The young woman had been a support for Marinette longer than most of her friends. She was a small woman, who had gone and competed in world championships for years. She made Marinette into the gymnast she was today. The second Marinette found out she had made the Olympic team, both of them leaped for joy and immediately went into celebration mode. It was beyond a dream come true.

* * *

The entire scenario was just unreal. Marinette sat on a bench in the hallway of Charles de Gaulle airport. Sitting next to her were the other gymnasts she had been training with for the past few months. She had her backpack between her legs, and her purse slung over her shoulder. Someone had already come around to gather all of their suitcased to check. Now they were just waiting to make sure everyone was here.

So far the majority of the French Olympic team was separated by sport. Which was why Marinette currently found herself sandwiched between Marine Brevet and Louise Vanhille. The rest of the gymnasts huddled around the group, waiting patiently for their coach to call them to start heading towards the security checkpoint. During this time, Marinette just looked around her, watching the large group of athletes in matching tracksuits. She had been waiting for this day for a long time, and now that it was finally here, she could hardly process it.

The athletes were called by sport, in alphabetical order, to go towards security. It took a while, but eventually the gymnasts were called.

" _L'escrime, la foot, le golf, et le gymnastique_!" A man with a megaphone called out repeatedly. If not for the fact that the rest of her team stood up, Marinette probably would have missed the call.

The dark haired girl grabbed her things and scurried to follow after the group. She lined up in the security line, and dug through her purse for her passport and plane ticket. Security, as always, took a very long time to get through, especially when it came to the scanners. Just about every athlete seemed to have something in their bag that they shouldn't. One girl had a massive bottle of lotion, one guy had a golf club, the list goes on. Marinette almost got called out for having her cell phone in her pocket, but was reminded to put it in the bucket with her purse right before she went through the x-ray scanner. Thankfully she didn't have to deal with a pat-down either.

Once through security, they group was rushed through to go find their gate for departure. Marinette didn't have time to finish putting her shoes on, and almost tripped over her own shoelaces as a result. Her fellow gymnasts teased her about her clumsy tendencies, as they had many times before.

No matter what airline you're flying, or your gate number, your gate will always be the farthest one away. That's just how life always seemed to work out. This time was no exception. The gate that this olympic team was heading towards was the very last one in the terminal. The group was very thankful to see a crowd of the exact same track suits gathering around the different chairs. Marinette quickly sat down in an open chair. She pulled out her cell phone, sending a quick text to her parents letting them know she had made it through security. As she typed out the message on her phone, she noticed someone standing nearby.

When the teenaged girl looked up, she saw a blonde boy, in the same team outfit, "Hey." He said. "Mind if I take the seat next to you?"

"Go ahead." She flashed him a friendly smile and reached down to move her backpack out of the way.

The boy sat down, settling his messenger bag on the floor between his legs. "So," He started up the conversation again. "Have you been through all this before?" He tipped his head to the side, meaning to gesture towards the other olympians.

"Nope. It's my first time." Marinette responded. "It's starting to settling in how real it is."

"It's my first time here too." The boy laughed. There was a small silence before he started up more conversation. "So what's your sport? Do you know what event's you're doing?"

"Yeah!" Marinette immediately perked up. She loved talking about doing her part for France. "I'm doing floor routines, the beam, and the all-around for gymnastics!"

"You're a gymnast? That's so cool!" The blonde's excitement matched hers easily. "That's so nice actually because you don't need to worry about your equipment on the plane."

"Do you have something?"

"Yeah, my saber and my foil." The boy's face instantly became nervous. "I'm a fencer right? I had to check my weapons, and I just really hope they're ok."

Mari's eyes grew wide. She couldn't imagine having to leave an item necessary to compete in the hands of airport staff on an international flight. All she had to worry about was her leotard, and she wasn't even going to get the one she was competing in until they got to the Olympic Village. "I'm sure it'll be fine. Everyone's stuff is together."

"I know. I just can't help but think about it." One of the other fencers apparently was listening into the conversation, and turned around to say a few words to the teen. A man ruffled the blonde's hair while the other's laughed, then the fencers all turned back to what they were doing.

"You guys seem to get along really well." Marinette said.

"They all just poke fun at me because I'm the youngest on the team."

"How old are you?" Curiosity encouraged the conversation to continue.

"Sixteen."

"No way! Me too. Well, I will be soon." Suddenly there was a wave of comfort in knowing that she wasn't the only young rookie. While it wasn't uncommon for gymnasts to be on the younger side, in fact, most of them were in their teens, but being new on the team _and_ on the young side attracts a lot more attention than she would have liked.

The blonde boy looked at her and smiled. "I'm Adrien. Adrien Agrest." He reached out a hand to shake.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng." She smiled as they introduced herself.

* * *

The plane ride was certainly a doozy. You haven't been on a plane until you've been squished and squashed between big, muscle covered guys easily two feet taller than you. After nearly being crushed by swimmers and track runners, and duffle bags getting passed overhead, Marinette finally found a seat where she wouldn't get crushed. Once again, the sports were sitting in alphabetical order, but from there the athletes could sit wherever they wanted. Marinette had somehow secured an aisle seat in the center column.

It was moments like these where she was thankful she was short. While she had built up a lot of muscle mass because of her training over the years, Marinette stood at a towering five foot two. This gave her plenty of legroom, where as some of her fellow olympians did not have that luxury. She wondered about the weight lifters, wrestlers, and track and field...ers….that most definitely needed more than the small foot and a half of leg room. Marinette looked up and down the aisle to see many of the taller people, primarily guys, had their legs sticking right into the walking space.

"You ready Mari?" Loan His, another member of the gymnastics team, sat in the middle seat.

"Yep. I'm usually really good with planes." She dark haired girl responded.

The plane took off as scheduled, a whole different kind of miracle. The moment the plane was in the air, Marinette took her headphones and mp3 player out of her purse. She threw some music on, and leaned back. She knew very well that she wasn't about to sleep on the plane, she wasn't blessed with that skill, but she could at least rest up. It looked like they flight crew was going to try to show a few in-flight movies, but chances are they weren't about to be anything interesting.

Unfortunately, a twelve hour plane ride it far too long for the battery life of a generic brand mp3 player. Marinette's favorite playlist had already done three full loops, added up to about to about four hours, and the battery was already half empty. Then again, it was her fault for not remembering to charge it the night before. In the time she had been peacefully listening to her tunes, the flight attendants had come around and delivered drinks and sandwiches.

There was some laughter a few rows back. Marinette leaned over the aisle and turned her head to see what the fus was. When she did turn back, she just saw different groups of people chatting. A couple of the other athletes had gotten up from their seats, and were standing up to stretch out.

"Anything interesting happening back there?" Loan asked.

"Not really." The teen turned back to face forward in her seat. "Just looking at who knows who."

"Yeah. Some of the people who have been to the olympics before become good friends, no matter what sport they do."

"Really? That's cool." Marinette enjoyed talking to Loan. They were about the same age, Loan only being a year and a half older. Plus, since the olympic trials, they had sent so much time practicing together and encouraging each other. They just clicked naturally.

"I saw you talking to some guy before we got on the plane." Loan chuckled and poked an elbow at the side of her fellow gymnast.

"Oh please." Marinette swatted the elbow away. "I literally talked to him for five minutes."

"I know, I know. I'm just teasing." Loan laughed. "But…." She looked around their row of seats to make sure no one was listening into their conversation before leaning and and using a hand to cover her mouth. "I heard a lot of people 'hook up' with other athletes in the olympic village."

"What?" The surprise went away almost instantly. "Actually, that makes sense."

"I can't imagine the temptation! It's going to be thousands of people from around the world, in absolute top shape." The brunette reached arms back to fix her ponytail on the top of her head. "And you somehow already encountered Adrien Agrest. You're going to make people cry, you know that, Mari?"

"Huh?" That last comment confused Marinette to know end. But before she could start to question what that meant, the teen girls were interrupted by Samir Aït Saït, who was a member of the men's gymnastics team.

" _Salut_." He leaned over the two of them, arm resting on the top of the back of Marinette's chair. "Do you guys want to stretch some with me? Make sure that you don't get stiff."

"Sure!" Loan jumped at the opportunity to move around, and because she sat in the middle seat, Marinette was forced to get up as well.

"What about here?" Samir gestured to the girl fast asleep in the third seat.

"I think we should just let her sleep." Marinette said as she took her track suit jacket off, and folded it to put on her seat.

The gymnasts stood in the aisle, along with other members of the team, and immediately got a few shout outs from the different athletes throughout the plane. They cooed as the group got a little flashy and began flexing their shoulder muscles a little more than necessary. It wasn't long before a few people from other sports bolted across the plan to join in. There were a few who took it seriously, but also plenty who took it as a joke, very clearly mocking the stretching class that the gymnasts were now leading. Sometimes it was hard to believe that this was supposed to be the big, serious olympic team that was supposed to represent the whole of France, and yet here they were, making a game out of stretching on an airplane. Life was funny that way.

* * *

The inside of the Rio de Janeiro airport was well cleaned, but also crowded. The large group of french athletes was met the moment they got off the plane by a young woman carrying a large sign that read ' _L'équipe Français_ '. Once they were sure that everyone had made it off the plane successfully, they began to clear out of the gate their plane had landed at.

There was a lot of waiting involved in getting the french out of the airport. Nearly half an hour was taken just for everyone to use the bathroom. After everyone had taken the time to relieve themselves, the large group of athletes was lead through the airport. Marinette spent the time looking around at her surroundings. She was in the middle of the mass, so she wasn't worried about getting separated. As they walked through the halls, Marinette noticed other groups, clearly there to represent their own respective countries as visible by the brightly colored, matching jackets. Some of the teams were all the same shades of tan, dark brown, or pale, while others, like the french team, were a melting pot of skin tones, heights, and builds. While Marinette had known through movies and the internet about the different kinds of people in the world, it was definitely different actually seeing them all in real life.

"There really are all kinds, aren't there?" Marinette turned her head to see Adrien, the blonde she had met before the flight, standing just barely behind her. He had his messenger bag over one shoulder, a long black bag slung over the other, and suitcase handle in hand.

"Yeah. There are." Marinette nodded in agreement. The team had made it to customs, and everyone was now filing one by one, passports in hand.

"Oh look." He pointed towards a sign above a customs booth. "It's in french."

Marinette looked at the sign he was pointing to. There were three lines of text, all in different languages; the top in a language she couldn't identify, the middle in what looked like english, and the bottom in french. "What language is the other one?"

"Probably portuguese. That's the main language of Brazil."

"Is it? I didn't know."

Adrien raised an eyebrow and looked down at the small gymnast. "You didn't look it up? Not even once?"

"No." Marinette admitted, her face flushed. She reached a hand behind her head and fixed her one of her pigtails.

The blonde boy tried to stifle a laugh. The two teens were suddenly pushed forward, ushered towards the same customs booth. They each showed their passports, neither of them having to explain why they were entering the country. Once done, the two continued past the counter to rejoin the rest of their team on the other side. They specifically walked towards what looked like the rest of the fencers. Marinette followed him only because she noticed that she was the only gymnast to make it through customs. The rest would likely wander in shortly.

"No trouble getting your blades through?" One of the fencing men joked with Adrien.

"Thankfully no." The blonde secured his long bag over his shoulder.

Marinette stood awkwardly to the side as she waited for her friends to find her in the crowd of athletes. Unfortunately, she was very short and surrounded by giants. "I'm going to assume my team will eventually find me." She said, turning back to Adrien. While she didn't know the boy well yet, she knew the rest of the french team even less. She would much rather stick with him then people she didn't know.

"It's a real shame that you and your team _split_." The blonde boy looked over her head, as if looking for her lost teammates.

"I'll find them" Marinette was clearly a little nervous, although she tried to come off as calm. She wasn't very good with new people, and being in a new country, away from her parents, with a bunch of people who were basically strangers, definitely did not help. Being a french olympian, Marinette had to travel with the rest of the team, and therefore wasn't able to fly over with her family. Her mother and father would be flying over in a week, and would make it into Rio the day before the opening ceremonies.

Before she could find the rest of the gymnasts, the whole crowd was rushed out of the airport lobby. Everything was happening about as fast as a whirlwind. She couldn't even keep track of everything. Before she even knew what was happening, Marinette was on a shuttle bus to the olympic village. She didn't really understand how she ended up staying with Adrien and the fencing team, but in the end they were all going to the same place so it didn't really matter. Before the bus left the airport, Marinette did see some members of the gymnastics team board, but they were seated too far away for her to call out to them.

The olympic village was a series of tall apartment building that was pretty removed from the main beach where the olympic events would actually be taking place. When they arrived, half of the french team was completely whipped out and exhausted from traveling, while the other half was beyond excited to explore the unfamiliar land. The large group was lead to their room assignments. Everyone was roomed together with one other person from their same sport, with each sports rooms all lined up next to each other.

While everyone was still figuring out where they were supposed to be going, Marinette and Adrien kept talking. They found that they were both from Paris, oddly enough, they didn't grow up too far from each other. There could have been a chance of them running into each other before now, except for the fact that Adrien had attended private schools his whole life, while Marinette had always gone to public schools.

" _Attendes, tu sais la_ _Place de Vosges_?" Marinette was shocked. It was a small little park by her apartment complex. There was nothing noteworthy about it unless you lived nearby.

"I believe so." Adrien held his chin in thought. "Is it close to the _Théâtre du Châtelet_?"

"Yeah!" Marinette smiled. "It's only a few blocks away."

"Then I definitely know it." The blonde teen nodded. "My father goes to a lot of shows there for work functions, so I've been going since I was a little kid."

"No way." The gymnast adjusted her backpack on her shoulders. "My family owns a little bakery over there. You should stop by next time you're around." She said that without even thinking. Immediately she felt her face go hot, embarrassed by her invitation. She had only just met this guy after all, and here she was inviting him to her family's bakery.

"Do you make croissants?" Adrien asked quickly. The expression on his face was oddly serious.

Marinette nodded. "Of course we do."

A large grin plastered itself to Adrien's face. "Then I'll definitely be there. If I'm around at least. I only go that way maybe once a year."

The Parisian pair was split up when their respective teams were assigned to different floors. The other gymnasts seemed to flood in from different spots in the large ocean of french athletes, each of them having gotten into conversations with people from different sports. Marinette had a feeling a lot of that would happen over the course of these Olympics.

Marinette let her head hit her pillow the second she got to her assigned room. Her assigned roommate was Loan, which was nice because of how close they were. She rested for a moment before curiosity got the better of her and she began to look around. The room had two twin sized beds, each with their own bedside table. There was also a wardrobe that was split so that each girl could have half. There was one door other than the one into the hallway, and upon opening it, Marinette saw that it led into a common space that looked like it was shared with the room next door, which two other gymnastics girls should be in. There was a small couch and a coffee table, and an entrance to a bathroom that branched off of it. In the common space was a door to a balcony. Marinette immediately went back to her bag that she had left on her bed, and pulled out a folded up french flag and zip ties. She went back to the balcony and got to work using the zip ties to hang the flag over the side. It was tradition in her home to hang a french flag during the olympics, so it was only natural for her to carry that with her as she was about to compete in Rio.

"That's a nice touch." Marinette turned to see Marine coming out of the other room.

"Thanks." Marinette smiled.

"Did you guys see the little boxes on your night stands?" The young woman asked as she made her way to the bathroom. "There's a lot of helpful stuff in those."

"I'll go look now. Thanks!" The pigtailed girl once again went to her room and saw Loan already looking through a little white box that had been left for each of them. Inside were two folding maps, one of the olympic village and everything it had to offer, and another of city of Rio. There was also a schedule for each of the different sports events, a schedule for various shuttle busses, a little mini french flag on a stick, and a piece of chocolate.

"Oh that's handy." Loan said. Marinette turned her head to see the other teenager holding up a small ziplock bag, inside where some barely familiar foil packets. Marinette looked back inside her box and saw she had a bog of them too. Her face immediately flushed.

"Do you… Do you plan on using those?" Mari asked, suddenly finding the pattern of the bedding particularly interesting.

"Don't know yet." Loan shrugged. "That would depend on who I meet. Don't worry though. I won't do anything in the room."

"Right….." Marinette packed up her box again, all except for the map of the village, which she decided to study until she knew what to do with herself. Then she remembered she hadn't called home yet. She looked at the clock on her phone. It was getting close to five in the afternoon here, which meant it was about ten o'clock at night back in Paris. She excused herself to the balcony, and called home. " _Salut Mamman, Papa._ "

* * *

Dinner was in interesting event. There was no assigned time to go, only certain hours listed that it would be open. Eventually the gymnastics head coach gathered up all ten of the athletes, and they all marched across the village to the dining hall. They ran into a few others from France's team, but also groups from other countries as well.

The dining hall itself was like a warehouse, lined with metals tables and plastic chairs in rows. On all ends of the large building were cafeteria style kitchens that were putting up foods from all cultures. Each station had a huge sign over it labeling the kind of food that was being served there. There was something for everyone.

Since she didn't know what else to do, Marinette just followed her fellow gymnasts. They ended up going straight to the European food, grabbed cafeteria trays, and began loading food onto plates. Marinette managed to find herself a nice looking helping of fish, cooked vegetables, salad, and bread. She saw one of her teammates grab a large bottle of sparkling water to share, so she just made sure she had a glass.

As she ate, Marinette observed the different teams. For the most part, everyone was wearing some kind of identifier for where they were from, so it was easy to see who was sitting with who. She noticed that every now and then, there would be a few teams mingling together, either because they happened to be sitting near each other, or they sought out each other's presence. Some of the older athletes greeted each other like they were seeing old friends for the first time in years, which could very well be the case. Some groups sat politely and ate quietly, while others were loud and energetic. Some came and went very quickly, and others, like the french, sat for a very long time. Cultural differences sure were something.

* * *

At the end of the night, Marinette fell asleep much faster than she ever would have back home. A full day of traveling, plus a change in time zones, equalled up to one tired frenchie. She fell asleep the second her head hit the pillow, even with her hair still slightly wet from a shower. Her first night in Rio, and she couldn't even keep her eyes open long enough to see what the stars looked like. She didn't mind though. In order to get her internal clock right for completing, she needed to rest up while she could.


End file.
